Set Your Electives Up Early

[brooksbane]

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[ploughboy]

I made the mistake of not doing this because I wasn't sure of what residency I wanted to do.

 

I also didn't want to double-book because I felt it was unfair. Additionally, my monetary situation did not allow me to book a large amount of electives.

 

Looking back, I realize I've made a huge mistake. Now my elective opportunities are severly limited.

 

 

Trust me, if you're not booking an elective in January, someone else is. So do it early.

 

Hey!

 

Not sure what school you're at, but that's the message my class (at UWO) is getting from some people in the class ahead of us too. Do your homework re immunizations, paperwork etc and some planning for fourth year now, before third year even starts (at UWO, all our electives are done in 4th year). It's crappy that electives have turned into auditions, but what do you do.

 

On the other hand, every year you hear stories of people changing their mind last minute and still matching to the specialty they wanted so maybe there's hope!

 

pb

[LFTs]

What specialty are you looking to do?

 

I mean, the timeline can vary widely if you're matching to a surgical subspecialty vs. another specialty like FM which is more flexibile.

 

The advice I would give is to book electives early (4-6 mos), and if you are not sure, use your first one in a field that you would be interested in but also flexible in terms of looking 'good' or 'useful' i.e. ER, ICU, even radiology - for either medical or surgical fields.

 

At the same time, I wouldn't book something WAY in advance just for the sake of it. I also know people who locked into doing an elective for a month because they booked it quite early, but then sort of regretted it later because interests changed.

[UBCmed09]

At the same time, I wouldn't book something WAY in advance just for the sake of it. I also know people who locked into doing an elective for a month because they booked it quite early, but then sort of regretted it later because interests changed.

 

With regards to this, I was under the impression that it was becoming common practice to book "back-ups" and then cancel them later if you landed the elective you actually really wanted. Sounds like a lame thing to do but is this actually happening?

[NHL Fever]

Its not unfair to multiple-book electives. I think most of the complaining about this may be from those who feel they got shafted by other students doing this. Its completely legal and understood that people may not get to all their electives, which is why application fees are non-refundable. There are advantages, such as making sure you have something booked if your first choice falls through, but also disadvantages, such as having a bad reputation at that program (lower interview chance) for canceling electives you agreed to, or because it appears you favor something else over them. Because some schools are ridiculous slow when it comes to confirming your elective, there's nothing wrong with booking another elective in your specialty at a second-choice school for the same time slot in the meantime. I double-booked UofO with UBC due to UBC's insanely slow response time, and got confirmed for UofO first so cancelled UBC and visited them later. For everything else, I didn't need to because I applied early enough.

 

When I was applying, I booked an elective with a certain school during my holidays which was right after my interview with them would have been (ie between interview and match time). My idea was to be the most recent person in their mind immediately before their decision, with the interview being simply an introduction. They confirmed my elective, but denied me an interview. I simply canceled my elective and took vacation instead, but I lost nothing in trying (except application fee) and in other circumstances it might have worked. Being creative with your electives, squeezing in time when you have it, can be the difference for some people. I ended up matching to my preferred program which was a competitive one.

 

The other thing to remember is that the school's electives schedule, or elective guidelines, may be in the best interest of the schools administrative convenience, not your career. You can often circumvent the guidelines. For example at UBC the formalized process for elective application is slow and waits until the very last second for their own students to confirm before confirming from out of province. However, if you ignore the electives coordinator and simply phone the program coordinator directly (not the doc, but the secretary in that department that books electives), they will often book you in because they are just as frustrated with the formal system as you are. Some electives coordinators will really hate this once the program phones and says you booked independently, but they are irrelevant voices when it comes to your match result.

 

Even your own school may place their own student logistics organization over your best interest. This was true at my school, where the first half of our electives are 6 weeks after barely starting internship in the third year. You'll look like an idiot enough already, without adding the no-experience factor to the mix. Something else thats happening is the limitation of electives so that you must do at least 3 electives in different specialties. I'm not sure if this is nationwide or just at my school. One way around this may be to book a 'research' elective as one of the 3 'different' options, if your school will let you. Just do research in the field you're interested in during the elective. You want research anyway, if you're going for something competitive.

[Kirsteen]

Even your own school may place their own student logistics organization over your best interest. This was true at my school, where the first half of our electives are 6 weeks after barely starting internship in the third year. You'll look like an idiot enough already, without adding the no-experience factor to the mix.

Hmmm, that sounds familiar (U. Calgary did this.) However, there are a few upsides to having 6 weeks of electives up front. One of my mentors mentioned that the primary pro to doing this is that, generally, most of the gunners for any specialty tend to book their electives closer to CaRMS time, whereas, earlier in the year, the rotations tend to be filled more with students who are just aiming to get through the rotation, if at all. I had 10 weeks of electives up front and at the 3 locations where I completed mine (McGill, UBC and UofT) there was only one site that had one elective student and our time barely overlapped. Plus, the preceptors certainly take into account that you've just started clerkship. More importantly, those early electives provided me with a number of great which I used in the CaRMS process. In short, early electives are not necessarily negative at all.

 

Kirsteen